One (One Universe)

seatbelt into place.
    “How do you know that’s where he is?” Leni asks.
    I shake my head and swipe more tears off my cheek. I can’t form words.
    “What did he say, Merrin?” Leni’s voice wavers.
    “He… There was a letter and…” The more I try to talk about it, the more I feel myself losing control. I swallow, shake my head fast. “I just know. Okay?”
    Daniel’s hand hovers over the shift, hesitating to put it into drive. “Merrin, I don’t know if we really should be…”
    “Okay,” Leni says. She presses her lips into a hard line, looks at Daniel, and then stares out the front windshield as we drive off.

TWENTY-THREE
    S ome cross between panic and hope tightens my throat as the minutes tick by and we finally reach the plains over the Hub. I haven’t even thought about how we’re going to get in.
    But when we get to the ramp that will take us underground to the garage, the gate swings open.
    “How did you…?”
    “It’s my parent’s car,” says Daniel. “Scans right in. Now. How is us breaking into the Hub going to help Elias? How do you even know for sure that they brought him here?”
    Just as I’m about to say, I don’t , every hair on my body stands on end. My skin prickles and pinches. I haven’t felt anything this intense since that day in art class.
    “I… I can feel him.”
    Daniel snorts a little, but Leni speaks up. “The buzz, Daniel. You know what that feels like.” She turns to me. “We still get it. When we’re, um…close.” She blushes.
    I look down at their hands. Leni grasps Daniel’s so tightly her knuckles almost glow white against the rest of her skin in the dim parking garage light.
    “So what are they doing with him?” Leni’s eyes pool with tears.
    My heart surges with love for her. Because of how much she loves Elias and because of what I know she’s been through. Because I know how she got that scar on her back. What no one was ever supposed to know. How will I tell her?
    I do know when I will tell her. Not now.
    “I…I don’t know. I just know it’s bad. He left a message on my cuff and one at the house. He was scared.”
    They both stare at me, waiting.
    “I don’t know, you guys, okay? But that’s why we’re here — to figure out why. There’s something they want him for, and I’m not going to let them have him.”
    “I don’t get it.” Leni looks genuinely confused. “You’re obsessed with the Hub. All you want is to get in here.”
    “Did you see Lia and Nora at the Symposium?”
    “Yeah.” Daniel snorts. “Smiling like good VanDynes.”
    I whip my head around to look at him. “Did you even see them? Did you talk to Elias afterward? Because they were not okay. He knew it, and he knows them better than anyone.”
    Daniel and Leni both kind of look down at their hands. I don’t know if they’re convinced or doubtful, so I keep going.
    “My brothers are here now too, doing God knows what. The Hub took them almost without any notice.”
    “Okay, so? They want the phenoms. Big deal.”
    “Yeah, but Elias is not a phenom. They think he is. But he’s just a One.”
    “Why would they think he’s a Super now?”
    “Well…it’s…it’s my fault, actually. I can’t go into it now because I’m afraid we don’t have time.” My voice cracks. “All I know is that, whatever they’re doing to him, his body can’t take it. They think we — Ones — can do stuff we can’t. Or that he can. Maybe. I don’t know. But I don’t want to risk waiting to find out.”
    Leni’s gaze darts between Daniel and me, and I can tell she’s going to be the deciding factor here. There are a couple seconds of silence, and then she turns to Daniel.
    “You know how to get in, don’t you?”
    “I have an idea. But I have no clue where to go from there. No one really knows the layout except high clearance.”
    “I do.” I sit up straighter, encouraged. “I know the layout. I’ve seen it — Elias has clearance. He showed me around at the Symposium.”
    Daniel’s eyes go wide. “Elias has — what? Well, okay,” he says, shaking his head, “but you don’t have clearance.”
    “No. But she does have you,” Leni says, staring at him. “Hack her cuff.”
    “You can hack my ID file that fast?” I gasp. “But most people — ”
    “Yeah. Would take days. But he’s a genius.”
    “Do you have any idea how much trouble I — ” Daniel stammers.
    “Daniel. Seriously? She’d do it for you.” Leni motions for my cuff,